Two new updates in the Quinton Simon case — and frankly neither is one we expected.
For those not following the story, the 20-month-old Savannah, Georgia boy was reported missing by his mother on October 5. But a missing persons case quickly became a murder investigation as Chatham County Police Department and the FBI came to the conclusion that the boy was already dead and had been disposed of in a dumpster before the search even began. They’re currently searching a landfill for his body, and once they have it they will in all likelihood make an arrest. The one and only “prime suspect” in the case? The boy’s mom, Leilani Simon.
The authorities have not released what evidence led them to the shocking conclusion that this 22-year-old woman had murdered her son (more on that below…). But what we do know is that she and her mother, Billie Jo Howell, have been spotted out drinking and partying, at the same time deputies were literally digging through trash looking for the body of her boy.
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So when we heard a few arrests were made in the case over the weekend, obviously we had some expectations of who those might be. We couldn’t have been more wrong.
On Friday night, per local outlet WOTC, police were called twice to Leilani’s home on a report of disruptive behavior. Apparently three people were blocking the driveway as activists have gathered outside the home to demand answers from Leilani. These protesters, identified as William Garrett, Wanda Boatwright, and John Boatwright, refused to move when asked by police and were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct. A fourth person, Kimberly Tahyer, was arrested on Saturday — she allegedly crossed the line by actually banging on doors and windows of the home. She’s been charged with criminal trespass.
So no, Leilani has not been arrested. Yet. But again, she’s still the only suspect. And we might be learning why from an unexpected source…
In a new interview with DailyMail.com, Quinton Simon’s father is speaking out for the first time. And if he’s telling the truth, we have a pretty good idea how the police came to narrow their scope to the boy’s mom.
Henry “Bubba” Moss, Quinton’s biological father, lives 85 miles away in the little town of Girard, Georgia. Why haven’t police looked at him? Well, they have. In fact, he was the first person they eyed — because Leilani told them to.
According to Bubba, police revealed to him that Leilani had accused him specifically of taking the boy. He told the outlet:
“Leilani’s tried to blame it on me.”
He was mowing his boss’s lawn when police came to question him in Girard. He recalled:
“They asked did I have him and when was the last time I was in Savannah? They told me Leilani said I came and got him overnight.”
Bubba said he hadn’t been in Savannah in over a month. He also claims he was able to prove, at the very least, that he was nowhere near there at the time of the boy’s disappearance. He told police he was at home all night — and was able to prove he didn’t leave until 7 a.m. the next morning for work thanks to a surveillance camera from the gas station next door to his home that would have captured his exit.
The time he had been near Savannah, he said, was not to see his son — but to install an air conditioner on Tybee Island. (That just happens to be the same area where Leilani and her mom were partying. Small world. Even smaller state.)
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If all that is true, that sounds like Leilani was caught lying to police — as if she had picked out her patsy for the crime, not realizing he’d be able to prove he was innocent!
This was also before police had announced their conclusion that the boy was dead. So at the time, Bubba says, he warned the cops not to trust Leilani:
“I told police — she’s gonna hurt that baby. I said I didn’t know what was going on. Hell, I haven’t heard from her in six to seven months.”
What made him think that? Well, it helps to have a little background on their relationship.
Bubba and Leilani met at a swimming hole in 2019 and started hooking up. They both already had kids from previous relationships. As far as their relationship went, it sounds like a nightmare. Bubba says Leilani lied, cheated on him, and complained about not getting enough money from him, which she would spend on drugs:
“She did cocaine every day, all day, as much as she could. When she didn’t get no money from me to get f**king drugs, she’d go crazy. She hit me a few times in the face.”
He claims she slept with other men for drug money. She got pregnant in 2020 but didn’t tell him for months. She also didn’t put his name on the birth certificate originally, leading him to some uncomfortable questions. Apparently there’s always been a real issue between the former couple over Bubba’s fatherhood of Quinton.
Bubba said if it was up to him he would have taken care of Quinton — assuming first that she would prove that the child was his. He provided the outlet with an audio recording of a call in which he told Leilani:
“I’ll keep the baby and take care of him and all, so if he’s mine, we’re going to get a DNA test. If he’s mine, I would want to put his motherf**king name right on his birth certificate and change his last name. He can live with me. I’ll do that, put him in motherf**king day care, whatever I’ve got to do. I’ll take care of him, I promise you that.”
If only that had happened. As for why it didn’t, the reason he hasn’t seen the boy in months or been a part of his life at all? That, he says, is all because of Quinton’s mother:
“The only reason I’m not in Quinton’s life is because she left. She was not welcome here anymore with all her lying and stealing.”
Bubba says the last straw with Leilani was in February 2021, when he was arrested for something he knew nothing about. He says the police showed him an outstanding warrant he never even knew existed. Why? Because his girlfriend had tried to pin crimes she was committing on him!
She had broken into and stolen from another trailer in the mobile home park where they lived and implicated him to try to reduce her sentence. (She ended up getting 12 months probation for that — a probation she is still on, btw.) It’s a wild claim — but Bubba provided DM an audio recording of a conversation in which she admitted it! He can be heard telling her on the recording:
“I’m saying, why did you do that, though? That is f**ked up. I can’t believe it still. Huh? What, you gonna tell them the f**king truth now or what?”
To which she replies:
“Yes, Bubba, I’m going to tell them the truth. I’ve already called up there. They have so many different f**king recorded messages when you call them… I’m going to tell the truth, that you didn’t do anything.”
He said she did this one other time as well, referencing the theft of a wallet — though no arrests were made in that cast. In this context, it suddenly makes so much more sense why Bubba might think Leilani had done something to Quinton. In the past when she’s accused him of committing a crime, it’s always been the case that she was the one responsible.
More importantly, if she really did lie to police about what happened to her son, no wonder she’s their prime suspect! Of course, that doesn’t explain why they determined the child’s remains were dumped in a specific dumpster, leading to a specific landfill. There must be some other evidence as well — maybe something they found when looking at her because of the lying to police?
Whatever it is, Leilani isn’t budging on her story. In fact, remember those protesters? She’s actually got the guts to go to the press and complain about them! In an interview, alongside her mother, she told WTOC on Monday:
“It makes it hard to even process what’s going around us. We get to the point where we have to barricade our own home in order to even feel safe in our backyard because we can’t even process what is happening everywhere else, or even have the time to do so. I can’t even walk out and appreciate my own son’s memorial or put down gifts that I got for him. I can’t even go out there and do that without harassment and negligence and everything. It’s just devastating to see that this is how the outside world reacts.”
She didn’t address the partying but instead told the station she and her mother spend most of their time in the backyard because being inside with all the reminders of Quinton just makes them too sad:
“Every day that goes by its less tears and more anger, not knowing what’s happening, if that’s even understandable. You wake up every day, angry, hoping that you’ll get a phone call, and that phone call just doesn’t come.”
What do YOU think really happened??
[Image via WJCL News/YouTube/Chatham County Police Department/Leilani Simon/Facebook]
The post Quinton Simon's Father Finally Reveals Why Cops Might Think His Ex Killed Their Son! appeared first on Perez Hilton.